How Many Times Can Republicans Tell The Same Lies About Health Care Reform And Have The Media Repeat Them As News?

December 28, 2011 — Ron Chusid

I don’t know which is worse, that a major party candidate would tell such a lie or that a major news organization would cover it without pointing out the facts. Rick Perry is repeating the same type lie frequently made by Republicans that the Affordable Care Act would deny people care. This is from NBC:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday warned that President Obama’s health reform law could result in the death of ill patients, relating the story of a cancer patient he met Tuesday at a campaign stop in Creston, Iowa.

“She came up to me and she said ‘Governor, if you don’t get rid of Obamacare, I’m dead,” he recounted. “She said they will never take care of me. And that’s a powerful testimony by that lady.”

A random person makes a factually untrue statement and it becomes a news story because a dishonest Republican candidate repeats it.

The reality is the opposite of what is claimed by Perry. There is absolutely nothing in the Affordable Care Act which would limit care to cancer patients such as this. There are no “death panels.” In reality, healthcare reform became necessary because of the large number of people who really are dying without the needed reforms. Today, many cancer patients do not receive health care because they cannot afford insurance. ObamaCare is changing that. Before the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies would refuse to sell insurance to people with a history of cancer (and many other problems), and some would drop the coverage of cancer patients to save money.

We expect such lies from Republican candidates, but couldn’t the news media do a better job of covering such false claims?

Because they are afraid once Obama gets re-elected and the current ACA provisions come on line people aren’t going to go backwards to the current Republicans squeeze every last dollar out of the sick, old and dying plan. It’s why people consistently fight their attempts to eliminate Medicare. Unfortunately, Medicaid is under severe attack and it just goes to show, the Republican View of Government, which is to safeguard and protect the stolen Trillions of the 1%.

Unfortunately, the news media are not interested in the truth or the body count. They are interested only in sensation, and selling copy. The more monstrous Obama can be made to appear in the public mind, the better.

But don’t worry. If the GOP manage somehow to make America forget the Bush disaster on election day, the new resident of the White House will get just as much unjust commentary. It’s just the nature of the beast.